Thomas Lawrence - 75 Years of Collecting - Vancouver Art Gallery

Thomas Lawrence
Portrait of Sir John McMahon, 1841
75 Years of Collecting
Vancouver Art Gallery
The Times of London
Publication
1907
[transcription of excerpt]
...and Lawrence's "Sir John McMahon," lent by Mrs. Marrable (127). the former
a seated full-length, is an excellent and characteristic example of the painter's
best period; and the latter, which was given by McMahon himself to the family of
the present owner, is one of those exact and scholarly portraits by which
Lawrence conquered and retained to the end of his life, the admiration of his
contemporaries.
British Historic Paintings
Publication
1984
[transcription]
Jan 13 - Apr 30
British Historic Paintings
Most of the paintings in this exhibition were acquired by the Gallery in the early
Thirties as part of the collection of works donated to the Gallery by its founders.
It was the Founders' intention to establish a representative collection of
historical British art as a nucleus upon which the future collection would be built.
In his introduction to the exhibition, Vancouver Collects, in 1973, Wylie Thom,
then Vancouver Art Gallery registrar wrote: "It is to the credit of the founders that
many of the paintings now considered to be among the finest in the Collection
were purchased either by or from them during the early years of the Gallery's
existence".
The exhibition is comprised of landscapes and portraits, typical of 18th and 19th
century British art. Included is Joseph Highmore (1692-1780), the earliest
artist represented in the collection. A contemporary of William Hogarth and a
student of Kneller, the successor to Van Dyke in English Portrait taste,
Highmore's portrait of Miss Elizabeth Hervey is one of the more striking English
portraits in the collection. It will be on view along with Hogarth's Portrait of Mr.
Bridgeman and others.
Love of the English countryside is reflected in the landscape of John Crome
(1768-1821). Crome was the founder of the Norwich School whose principal
concern was to establish a school of English landscape painting. English country
life, another popular subject of the period, is represented in two paintings by
George Morland, The White Horse and Post Boys and Horses.
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